Reverend Franklin A. Dorman

Abstract

I grew up in a family that was not religious. I didn’t have any religious training as a kid. I didn’t go to Sunday school, any of that stuff, though my mother insisted I be confirmed. I was raised in New Jersey, but I went to Phillips Exeter Academy up in New Hampshire. And then went in the service for a couple of years, in the Navy. Then I went into teaching. I taught at a couple of prep schools, including the Pingry School in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Then I decided to go to seminary. I graduated from Drew University in New Jersey and got ordained in Chatham, New Jersey, in 1966. Afterwards, I got a job up in Amherst with the North Amherst Congregational Church.

Franklin A. Dorman was born in New York City on April 29, 1927. He was raised and attended schools in Englewood New Jersey. He graduate from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1944 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy that same year. He was discharged from the Navy in 1946, graduated fom Princeton University in 1949 with a major in Spanish and received a Master’s in Spanish fom Middlebury College in 1956. He taught at Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachusetts fom 1951 to 1955 and the Pingry School in Elizabeth, New Jersey, fom 1956 to 1963 before enrolling at Drew Theological School where he received his Master’s of Divinity in 1966. He was ordained as a Congregational United Church of Christ minister and began a pastorate in 1966 at North Congregational Church in Amherst. He became Director of the United Christian Foundation (UCF), where he did problem pregnancy counseling and other activities. He became involved in Clergy and Laity United Against the War and worked with them fom 1972 to 1975, before entering the wilds of dormitory life to become a Head of Residence at University of Massachusetts (UMass) for four years. He moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1979, and has been employed by the Harvard University Divinity School, the State Conference of the United Church of Christ, and Witness for Peace in Nicaragua. Associated with many antiwar, antinuclear, and prochoice organizations, Dorman was arrested 19 times for nonviolent civil disobedience fom 1973 to 1991. He is the author of two books on genealogy. He is married and has five children, two step-children, and ten grandchildren.

Reverend Franklin Dorman was interviewed by David Cline on February 3, 2004.